Wednesday

Putting a stop to Children Sentenced to Life without Parole

We need your help to end the sentence of life without the possibility of parole for children younger than 18 years old.

Children can and do commit terrible crimes, however, when they do, they should be held accountable in a manner that reflects both their culpability and their special capacity for rehabilitation. Children under 18, who by law are not responsible enough to vote, live on their own, sign contracts, sit on a jury or get married without parental consent are too young to be treated as adults and sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in a prison cell without any chance of review or of parole.

United States: Thousands of Children Sentenced to Life without Parole

(New York, October 12, 2005)—There are at least 2,225 childoffenders serving life without parole (LWOP) sentences in U.S prisonsfor crimes committed before they were age 18, Human Rights Watchand Amnesty International said in a new joint report published today.

While many of the child offenders are now adults, 16 percent werebetween 13 and 15 years old at the time they committed their crimes.An estimated 59 percent were sentenced to life without parole for theirfirst-ever criminal conviction. Forty-two states currently have lawsallowing children to receive life without parole sentences.

The 157-page report, The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole forChild Offenders in the United States, is the first national studyexamining the practice of trying children as adults and sentencingthem to life in adult prisons without the possibility of parole. Thereport is based on two years of research and on an analysis ofpreviously uncollected federal and state corrections data. The dataallowed the organizations to track state and national trends in LWOPsentencing through mid-2004 and to analyze the race, history andcrimes of young offenders.

"Kids who commit serious crimes shouldn't go scot-free," said AlisonParker, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, who authored thereport for both organizations. "But if they are too young to vote or buycigarettes, they are too young to spend the rest of their lives behindbars."

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are releasing TheRest of Their Lives at a critical time: while fewer youth are committingserious crimes such as murder, states are increasingly sentencing themto life without parole. In 1990, for example, 2,234 children wereconvicted of murder and 2.9 percent sentenced to life without parole.By 2000, the conviction rate had dropped by nearly 55 percent (1,006),yet the percentage of children receiving LWOP sentences rose by 216percent (to nine percent).

"Untie the hands of state and federal judges and prosecutors," said Dr.William F. Schulz, Executive Director of Amnesty International USA(AIUSA). "Give them options other than turning the courts intoassembly lines that mass produce mandatory life without parolesentences for children, that ignore their enormous potential for changeand rob them of all hopes for redemption."

In 26 states, the sentence of life without parole is mandatory foranyone who is found guilty of committing first-degree murder,regardless of age. According to the report, 93 percent of youthoffenders serving life without parole were convicted of murder. ButHuman Rights Watch and Amnesty International found that anestimated 26 percent were convicted of "felony murder," which holdsthat anyone involved in the commission of a serious crime duringwhich someone is killed is also guilty of murder, even if he or she didnot personally or directly cause the death.

For example, 15-year-old Peter A. was sentenced to life without parolefor felony murder. Peter had joined two acquaintances of his olderbrother to commit a robbery. He was waiting outside in a van whenone of the acquaintances botched the robbery and murdered twovictims. Peter said, "Although I was present at the scene, I never shotor killed anyone." Nevertheless, Peter was held accountable for thedouble murder because it was established during the trial that he hadstolen the van used to drive to the victims' house.

The human rights organizations also said that widespread andunfounded fears of adolescent "super-predators"—violent teenagerswith long criminal histories who prey on society—prompted states toincreasingly try children as adults. Ten states set no minimum age forsentencing children to life without parole, and there are at least sixchildren currently serving the sentence who were age 13 when theycommitted their crimes. Once convicted, these children are sent toadult prisons and must live among adult gangs, sexual predators and inharsh conditions. For more state-by-state statistics please see the State-by-State Summary.

According to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, there isno correlation between the use of the LWOP sentence and youth crimerates. There is no evidence it deters youth crime or is otherwise helpfulin reducing juvenile crime rates. For example, Georgia rarelysentences children to life without parole but it has youth crime rateslower than Missouri, which imposes the sentence on child offendersfar more frequently.

"Public safety can be protected without subjecting youth to theharshest prison sentence possible," said Parker.

Nationwide, black youth receive life without parole sentences at a rateestimated to be ten times greater than that of white youth (6.6 versus0.6). In some states the ratio is far greater: in California, for example,black youth are 22.5 times more likely to receive a life without parolesentence than white youth. In Pennsylvania, Hispanic youth are tentimes more likely to receive the sentence than whites (13.2 versus 1.3).

The United States is one of only a few countries in the world thatpermit children to be sentenced to LWOP. The Convention on theRights of the Child, ratified by every country in the world except theUnited States and Somalia, forbids this practice, and at least 132countries have rejected the sentence altogether. Thirteen othercountries have laws permitting the child LWOP sentence, but, outsideof the United States, there are only about 12 young offenders currentlyserving life sentences with no possibility of parole.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International also challenged thepresumption that the youth offenders are irredeemable, which isimplicit in the sentence they have received.

"Children who commit serious crimes still have the ability to changetheir lives for the better," said David Berger, attorney with the lawfirm of O'Melveny & Myers and Amnesty International's researcherfor this report. "It is now time for state and federal officials to takepositive steps by enacting policies that seek to redeem children,instead of throwing them in prison for the rest of their lives."

The organizations called on the United States to end the practice ofsentencing child offenders to life without parole. For those alreadyserving life sentences, immediate efforts should be made to grant themaccess to parole procedures.

Testimonies from The Rest of Their Lives:Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States

On comprehending the life without parole sentence:

A 29-year-old woman who was sentenced to life without parole at theage of 16 said:

"I didn't understand ‘life without' . . . [that] to have ‘life without,' youwere locked down forever. You know it really dawned on me when[after several years in prison, a journalist] came and . . . he asked me,‘Do you realize that you're gonna be in prison for the rest of yourlife?' And I said, ‘Do you really think that?' You know. . . and I waslike, ‘For the rest of my life? Do you think that God will leave me inprison for the rest of my life?'"—Interview with Cheryl J., MacPherson Unit, McPherson, Arkansas,June 24, 2004 (pseudonym)

On committing crimes as children and being tried as adults: Gregory C., who committed his crime of first degree murder when hewas 15, described his state of mind at the time:

"A kid just does something—whether it's an accident or intentional. Imean personally, me, I was fifteen years old . . . I didn't know what I was doing. I was still a kid. . . . Kids do a lot of stupid things. . . . Theperson I was when I was fifteen, I really didn't have any morals, Ididn't even know who I was at that time. I hate to admit it, but I wasreal ignorant."—Interview with Gregory C., Colorado State Penitentiary, Cañon City,Colorado, July 2, 2004 (pseudonym)

Thomas M. described what happened when he heard the jury's verdict:

"I was very emotional and I broke out crying in court. I don't know if Ifully understood but I kinda understood when they just said, ‘guilty,guilty, guilty' and ‘life' y' know? As time went on, I'm really startingto realize how serious it is. I was young, I wasn't really too educated.When I got locked up, I was in the eighth grade. All my education hascome through the years of being incarcerated."—Interview with Thomas M., Colorado State Penitentiary, CanonCity, Colorado, July 27, 2004 (pseudonym)

On contemplating suicide in adult prison:

Richard I., who was 14 at the time of his crime and entered prison atage 16, spoke about his suicidal thoughts and his repeated practice ofcutting his arms with razor blades:

"When I went to prison, I was around all the—up all night—all theviolence. I was like, ‘man I gotta get out of this—how am I gonna getout of this prison?' I can't do no life sentence here at that age. And soI thought of that [killing himself]. Gotta end it, gotta end it . . . I've gotso many cuts on me. . . . Razor blades. They give us disposable razors, you pop it out."—Interview with Richard I., East Arkansas Regional Unit, Brickeys,Arkansas, June 21, 2004 (pseudonym)

On rape and other physical violence in adult prison:

Brian B. wrote about what happened soon after he entered prison inPennsylvania at the age of 17 with a life without parole sentence:

"Sheriffs took me to the Western Penitentiary. They lied to the wardentelling him I were eighteen, which I had not yet become. I were housedin an open poorly supervised unit, and that evening a group of largeadult men rushed into my cell, holding me down, they began pullingmy clothes off while another took a syringe over to a spoon thatanother inmate were holding a lighter under. He drew up whateverwas in the spoon. I were then injected with whatever it were. And thenraped. Once found by the officers I were taken to a holding area,cleaned up, and placed on a van to another prison at around 3:00am."—Letter from Brian B., Albion, Pennsylvania, August 28, 2004(pseudonym)

Warren P. wrote that when he first came to prison, at the age of 15:

"I was the target of covert sexual predators. Adults would pretend tobe your best friend to get close to you, then they would try you. . . . Officers would be hard on me more so than the adults for they believethat the younger inmates need rougher treatment."—Letter to Human Rights Watch from Warren P., Marion CorrectionInstitute, Lowell, Florida, March 2, 2004 (pseudonym)

On rehabilitation:

Charles L. came to prison at age 19. He spoke with obvious prideabout what he was learning on "hoe squad" in the ArkansasDepartment of Corrections:

Troy L., who was 15 when he murdered his abusive father, wasinterviewed for this report at age 24 in June 2004. He wrote in asubsequent letter:

"I would be ever grateful, in fact, for the chance to spend my life nowfor some good reason. I would go to the most dangerous parts ofAfghanistan or Israel, or jump on the first manned mission to Mars. . . .[I]f the state were to offer me some opportunity to end my life doingsome good, rather than a slow-wasting plague to the world, it wouldbe a great mercy to me." —Letter to Human Rights Watch fromTroy L., Grady Arkansas, July 2004 (pseudonym)

I oppose mandatory sentences and the Legislature's tying the hands ofjudges and prosecutors. No matter how tough you are on crime, youcan't say a fourteen-year-old is the same as an eighteen-year-old.—Paul Pinkham, "Court upholds life in prison for teenager," FloridaTimes-Union, February 7, 2002, p. B-1

The judge who sentenced 15-year-old Henry L. to life without parolefor first degree murder said at sentencing:

"[T]he sentence that I must impose is mandated by law. I don't haveany choice in the matter. I'm not at all comfortable with this case, notbecause the Defendant didn't receive a fair trial. I think that he did. . .. [But] it's obvious to me that we can't, as a society, say that fifteen-year-old children should be held to the same standards as adults. Ourlaw provides this. I think the law is wrong."—Honorable David Scott DeWitt (deceased), excerpt from sentencingtranscript in People v. Lashuay, 75th Circuit Court, Midland County,Michigan, June 25, 1984 (on file with Human Rights Watch)

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